1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a full automatic coating system which is capable of coating small quantities of products of various different types and which can be reduced in size.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various techniques for continuously coating large-sized articles, such as automobile bodies and door panels, have become established. Insofar as the large-sized articles are concerned, the coating cost can be included in the overall price of the individual articles. It is therefore possible to coat or paint individual custom-made products by manual painting operation by a painter. However, for various small-sized components used in automobiles, a continuous coating system constructed to coat individual components one by one is not suitable from the economical point of view. Accordingly, the small-sized components are usually coated in lots.
The circumstances described above with respect to the small-sized components are also applied to the field of slide fasteners. When a slide fastener of a particular type and having a particular color is to be manufactured in great amounts, it is possible to use a continuous production system using a large-sized equipment set in a plant. Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 42-8132, for example, discloses a coating jig for slide fastener sliders. The disclosed jig includes a rectangular frame provided with hooks and having a plurality of slider attachment plates mounted thereon in an arrangement as of sloping fins of a louver. Each of the slider attachment plates has a plurality of regularly spaced slider attachment portions. A number of sliders are attached to the slider attachment portions of all of the slider attachment plates, and front and rear sides of the respective sliders are coated while the hooks of the coating jig are properly supported. By using the coating jig together with a coating apparatus or system in the plant, a large quantity of components (sliders) can be continuously coated.
In recent years the tastes of general consumers have varied widely, and a decorative demand has increased even against notions used not only on garments but also on bags. Such a decorative demand has also extended to the field of slide fasteners, and it has become increasingly difficult to meet the color requirements regarding all the slide fasteners to be manufactured, only by means of the existing colors. There is an extreme instance where a very small quantity (20 to 40 pieces) of slide fasteners having a special color should be manufactured. To meet such extreme demand, the manufacturer must rely upon manual operation of workers highly skilled in dyeing and painting techniques. The thus produced slide fasteners are too expensive to use as accessories.
To meet the economical point of view without relying upon the laborious manual operation, a single type of product must be mass-produced. However, when producing various types of products, the mass-production system necessarily involves large quantities of stocks which require a complicated stock control system. In this instance, if the various types of products are all new products, the delivery time limits for the respective products will greatly be extended.